A Liberal Democratic Party panel agreed Thursday to present a bill to the Diet that would revise a 1979 law on Minamata disease in order to set up government screening body to register victims of the massive mercury poisoning of the 1950s and 1960s.
The LDP subcommittee on Minamata disease, headed by House of Representatives member Toshikatsu Matsuoka, said it will introduce the bill in April after consultations with lawmakers from other parties, and hopes to set up the state screening panel by the end of next March.
The LDP panel is putting the bill forward in an attempt to end a 17-month long halt to patient screening by the Kumamoto and Kagoshima Prefectural governments following a 2004 Supreme Court ruling that found the central government responsible for the scale of the poisoning.